Ayade wins re-election as governor of Cross River

Gov. Benedict Ayade has been re-elected as governor of Cross River for the next four years.

Announcing the result on Sunday in Calabar, the State Returning Officer, Akim Ibhadode, said Mr Ayade, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won the election with 381,484 votes.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) scored 131,161 votes while social Democratic Party (SDP) had 4,818 votes.

Mr Ibhadode explained that the state has 1,486,026 registered voters, out of which 542,115 were accredited for the election while valid votes cast were 522,309, rejected votes 11,499 and the total votes cast was 533,808.

The result sheet was signed by all party agents present and the Cross River Commissioner of Police, Austin Agbonlahor.

However, the collation agent of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Celestine Awor, alleged that the election in Obudu Local Government Area was marred by irregularities.

“Other political parties are not allowed to participate in the election, there was buying of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) from the electorates and massive thumb printing by the PDP in a secret locations,” he alleged.

He said that the APC has evidence and would petition the result from Obudu.

In his response, Mr Ibhadode said the result would be accepted since the collation officer from the local government had reported that the election was peaceful in the area, but added that the APC can go ahead with its petition if it was not satisfied and that it would be looked into.